Mexico

Mexico have been ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for the past few years and Germany 2006 will be their 12th World Cup, but they have yet to make their mark on the international stage.

Mexico World Cup profile continues below

In those 11 World Cups, Mexico have only made it past the group stages three times and have never got past the quarter finals.

Once again, Mexico qualified easily along with the USA in the CONCACAF qualifying group. They finished second beating off poor competition from the likes of Guatemala and Panama.

Ricardo La Volpe took over as manager of Mexico in October 2003, and since then the Mexicans have only lost twice. During the qualifiers, Jaime Lozano scored 11 goals, an impressive strike rate for a midfielder.

In spite of Mexico's high official ranking (fourth according to FIFA), many pundits believe that reaching the quarter finals would be a successful World Cup for them.

Their campaign got off to a good start with a 3-1 victory over Iran but only managed a 0-0 draw with 10-man Angola in their second match.

In spite of losing to Portugal 2-1 in their third game, Mexico qualified for the last 16, having gained second position in the group.

The Mexico v Argentina game was a tremendous spectacle but in the end Mexico lost 2-1 in extra time and failed to progress to the quarter-finals.

Mexico Squad:

Player Club Position Caps Goals
J Corona Tecos G 6 0
G Ochoa Club America G 1 0
Oswaldo Sanchez Guadalajara G 70 0
J Castro Club America D 11 0
M Mendez Monterrey D 32 1
R Osorio Cruz Azul D 38 1
Rafael Marquez Barcelona D 66 8
F Rodriguez Guadalajara D 32 1
C Salcido Guadalajara D 31 2
C Suarez Chivas D 176 7
G Franco Villarreal M 6 2
J Guardado Atlas M 7 0
Luis Perez Monterrey M 52 8
P Pardo Club America M 127 6
G Pineda Guadalajara M 29 0
J Rafael Garcia Atlas M 43 2
Ramon Carlos Morales Guadalajara M 43 5
G Torrado Cruz Azul M 55 2
Zinha Toluca M 31 4
J Arellano Monterrey F 59 7
J Borgetti Bolton F 74 37
O Bravo Guadalajara F 32 7
J Fonseca Cruz Azul F 28 19

Mexico World Cup profile by Ben Rosenbaum